Well, tonight I bid farewell to Blade number 2. He has served its usefullness as a test knife. Number 2 is the one that had the grooves in the blade. I tried hand sanding, filing and sanding at an angle to the belt, but nothing worked and too much steel was removed, so the knife became very thin. I looked at the platen and think I know one of the causes for the grooves. the platen doesn't line up with the belt exactly, so when i ground the plunge, the platen bumped dthe blade up and at an angle as I went by the edge of the belt, not the edge of the platen. My uncles hunting knife, which has a convex grind, didnt have this problem as much because I didnt use the platen. it had a slight groove, but that was easily fixed by careful lgrinding. Number 2 became a throwing knife. I tried several blade styles with it, like a recurve tanto style ( looked cool, threw pretty good!) I burned the tip several times, so the tip was blue. I put an edge on it and forgot to take it off when i threw it. needless to say, I now have 4 cuts much like paper cuts. I didnt even feel them when i got cut. I only went to a convex grind with my 120 ceramic belt, so I cant wait to do my uncles with a leather belt and white rouge!! The A-2 blade was about 1/16" thick, but was a little thinner near the plunge and thicker in the middle, giving it an odd appearance. it threw pretty well and took a lot of bounces off of a wood tree stump without damage. After about 30 throws, most of the misses and bounces, the tip bent a little. I could bend it back by hand. Oh well, now he will rest on my shelf. On a brighter note, I am working on a big bowie knife from 3/16 0-1 that is going well and I learned a few lessons.
1. Blue steel is bad and that funky smell isn't that appetizing.
2. Blue steel is HOT!!
3. Have a big water bucket nearby so you can just drop/throw the hot blades into it so you don't burn your fingers.
4. 0-1 rusts easily. Don't leave it in the water bath for 20 min. Having a blade the color of an orange isn't appealing.
5. When throwing a knife, don't sharpen the edges. You get cut when it leaves your hand spinning.
6. When throwing a knife, watch out for the richocets! And have good reflexes.
7. Always have lots of steel on hand. that way, when you mess up, you can work on another and not have to wait a week to get more steel and forget the valuable lessons.
On that note, I need more steel. I am thinking of switching to 1095, cuz its about $4 for 18" of it, about 1/3 the cost of A-2. I am going to make a big 8" blade kitchen knife to go back to college with me in the fall. What steel should i use for that? 440-C or ATS-34? Or A-2 when i have more practice?
1. Blue steel is bad and that funky smell isn't that appetizing.
2. Blue steel is HOT!!
3. Have a big water bucket nearby so you can just drop/throw the hot blades into it so you don't burn your fingers.
4. 0-1 rusts easily. Don't leave it in the water bath for 20 min. Having a blade the color of an orange isn't appealing.
5. When throwing a knife, don't sharpen the edges. You get cut when it leaves your hand spinning.
6. When throwing a knife, watch out for the richocets! And have good reflexes.
7. Always have lots of steel on hand. that way, when you mess up, you can work on another and not have to wait a week to get more steel and forget the valuable lessons.
On that note, I need more steel. I am thinking of switching to 1095, cuz its about $4 for 18" of it, about 1/3 the cost of A-2. I am going to make a big 8" blade kitchen knife to go back to college with me in the fall. What steel should i use for that? 440-C or ATS-34? Or A-2 when i have more practice?